Integrating International Medical Graduates: The Canadian Approach to the Brain Waste Problem

The Canadian health care system has relied both historically and more recently on international medical graduates (IMGs), physicians educated in other countries, to help solve shortages in its health care system, particularly in underserviced rural and remote areas. Throughout the 1970s, roughly a third of Canada’s physicians were IMGs. Although this proportion has dropped to 23 % more recently, Canada still has a sizeable dependence on …